Sounds of the Loop Source: Q Writer: Jimmy Nichol Date: July 1993   Perhaps the strangest singer/songwriter of the 1970s, O'Sullivan combined a ludicrous Hovis kid image and sentimentality (Clair is still a horror) with a curious wryness and an occasional deep sea melancholy - not even Morrissey can compete with Alone Again Naturally for grim, tuneful, suicide-inducing brilliance. Financially rogered by his manager and then saved in court, O'Sullivan now finds himself a star in Japan, duetting on hit singles with Peggy Lee and releasing this stylish album. The band play transatlantic polished pop soul, Ms Lee gamely trundles through the bizarre Can't Think Straight, tunes abound and throughout there is O'Sullivan's uniquely half-mordant, half-winsome view of life. The first line in the charming Having Said That is "I think love is just a load of crap", Divorce Irish Style is a heartfelt plea for religious reform, and so on. The overall impression is somewhere between Chris De Burgh with teeth and Leonard Cohen as a Somerset Liberal county councillor.   Rating 3 out of 5   Jimmy Nicol